Iraq's parliament voted on Wednesday not to change controversial new rules on an upcoming referendum, handing a snub to the United Nations which had said the rules were unfair and not up to international standards. In a floor vote, 119 of the 147 members present, a quorum, voted not to review the rule changes that were made in a parliamentary session on Sunday. Those changes made it next to impossible for the Oct. 15 referendum to fail by demanding that two thirds of registered voters in three of 18 provinces would have to say "No" to defeat it, not just two thirds of those who turn out to vote, according to a report of Reuters.
